Matt Lauer, Senate, Missiles: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

Big changes could still be made to the Senate package. Here’s the latest from Capitol Hill.

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Leon Neal/Getty Images

3. “It is wrong for the president to have done this.”

That was the office of Theresa May, the British prime minister, amid the racially charged furor President Trump set off by retweeting video posts from an ultranationalist British party leader supposedly portraying Muslims committing acts of violence. (Above, Ms. May visiting Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.)

We examined the videos. At least one misrepresents the facts of what the viewer is seeing, while two others are provided without any of the necessary context.

In other news related to Mr. Trump and online videos, he’s now raising questions about the authenticity of the “Access Hollywood” tape, even though he apologized for it when it surfaced during the campaign.

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Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

4. The latest North Korean missile test, which put the full continental U.S. within reach, raised a question for the U.S. and its allies.

Is it time to accept that North Korea will never give up its nuclear arms, and try to reach a deal to stop its arsenal from growing further?

Part of our Op-Ed team that visited North Korea recently put together this video, offering a rare glimpse inside the secretive nation. And our Interpreter column presents seven critical truths about the threat it poses.

Continue reading the main story

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ICTY, via Associated Press

5. A court session in The Hague, meant as a finishing note to a decades-long legal process over the atrocities of the Bosnian and Croatian wars, descended into chaos.

After judges affirmed a former general’s 20-year sentence, the 72-year-old defendant insisted that he was not a war criminal. “I reject your judgment with contempt,” he said, and lifted a small vial to his lips — apparently a lethal poison.

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Jim Wilson/The New York Times

6. Automakers are racing to get driverless cars to market. Pun intended.

G.M. will roll out its computer-operated Chevrolet Bolts for investment analysts on Thursday. The event is a critical step as the company seeks to establish itself at the head of the pack.

We took a test drive in one this week, in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco: more than two miles without a hitch.

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Pool photo by Fayez Nudeldine

7. It’s been nearly a month since the newly designated crown prince of Saudi Arabia imprisoned dozens of people — including princes and other elites — in the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh, billing it as a crackdown on corruption.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, above, was among them. He’s known as the Warren Buffett of the Middle East, and his absence is causing concern among the very investors the crown prince wants to court.

The prince defended the crackdown and his plans for a societal overhaul in a rare interview last week with our columnist Thomas Friedman.

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Nick Bentgen

8. “The strongest thing a man can do is cry.”

That was Jay-Z in an intimate conversation with Dean Baquet, our executive editor. They discussed therapy, politics, marriage, the state of rap and being a black man in Trump’s America.

Continue reading the main story

The article includes a 35-minute video of their talk, and is featured on the cover of the new T Magazine, along with original artwork by Henry Taylor. Read the editor’s note here.

“And a vote next month by the Federal Communications Commission to undo net neutrality would be the final pillow in its face,” he writes.

He sees it becoming more like cable TV: dominated by big business, with less of the flexibility and innovation that made it so awesome.

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Illustration by Doug Chayka, Photo via Library of Congress

10. Finally, we got the latest ratings numbers for the late-night shows, and they do not look good for Jimmy Fallon, above.

He’s lost 21 percent of his audience as viewers flock to Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel for political satire.

In all fairness, Mr. Fallon sometimes offers his own. From last night: “It’s been rough for the president. In fact, his first wife, Ivana, says he really misses his old life. You remember Trump’s old life — it’s where he’d play golf, watch ‘Fox & Friends,’ and send crazy tweets all day.”